“That’s it?” Bill asked.
“Yeah,” Crichton said, sighing. “Stupid, huh?”
“Only in presentation,” Bill replied. “Look, you don’t say that ‘it’s Cthulhu.’ You say: ‘I think it’s a Cthulhoid form entity.’ ‘It is Cthulhu’ is both wrong, if you went up and asked it its name I sure hope it wouldn’t answer ‘Cthulhu,’ and a good way to get dismissed as a crackpot.”
“Yeah,” Earp noted. “I had. But that explanation almost makes sense. Why’s it driving people crazy, though?”
“Well, the answer to that is sort of out there,” Crichton said. “But think for a second about a species that finds quantum mechanics logical. I remember my physics professor joking about that and Lovecraft. There’s a game about those stories called Call of Cthulhu and any time you run into one of the monsters you have to roll a sanity check.”
“Never played it,” Weaver said. “But I get what you mean.”
“Anyway, he was always joking that we had to roll SAN check when we got into discussions of quantum mechanics. Now, think about a species that actually finds it logical.”
“Okay,” the physicist said, wincing.
“Did you make your SAN roll?” Crichton said, grinning.
“Barely,” Bill laughed. “I think I lost a couple of points, though.”
“All right. Now think about such a species that is totally logical, like a Vulcan, maybe even higher form sentient, totally sentient that is, it doesn’t have any subconscious. Just pure thought and logic.”
“Okay,” Bill replied.
“Now think about it if it’s a broadcasting telepathic.”
“Oh, hell,” Bill whispered. “Now I see what you mean. Not evil, just totally indifferent and bloody dangerous.”
“Bingo,” Crichton said. “A Cthulhoid entity. Its purpose is probably unknowable at our level.”
“It might not even be a real entity,” Robin suggested. “It might be something along the lines of a probe. All the ‘broadcast’ might be secondary effects from whatever it’s using for analysis of its surroundings.”
“Robin,” Bill said. “Write it up as a theory, post it to the Columbia research net with a suggestion that they try to get some sort of monitors in to see if we can pick up any specific traces of what it’s generating. I refuse to believe that anything is impossible to understand.”
“Even quantum mechanics?” Crichton said, smiling.
“Even quantum mechanics,” Bill answered. “What’s the word from Eustis?”
“The Titcher are in full control of both sides of the gate,” Earp replied. “More units from the 3rd ID have responded but they can’t regain control of the gate. They’ve managed to hold them to a perimeter but they’re taking horrible losses doing it.”
“Drop a nuke on it,” Weaver said.
“From orbit?” Crichton asked. “Only way to be sure?”
“Pretty much,” Weaver replied. “I don’t know if National Command Authority has caught up with what a problem the Titcher are. If we don’t push them back and close up that gate we’re toast. As a species, I mean, not just the United States.”
“They can only fit so much through the gate,” Earp protested. “We can hold them back; we just need to get enough troops in place.”
“And what if they open other ones?” Bill asked. “Besides, what we’re seeing is what they can fit through the gate. We haven’t seen what they’re throwing at the Mreee. I think what we’ve seen is the tip of the iceberg. Once they start growing forces on this side of the gate it’ll be all over but the shouting.” He sighed and rubbed his face. “I think I need to tell Washington how to run the war. Again.” He picked up his cell phone and punched in the number to the national security advisor.
“White House, National Security Advisor’s Office.”
“This is Dr. Weaver. I need to talk to the NSA.”
“She’s in a meeting at the moment, can I take a message?”
“Ask her to call me back as soon as possible,” Bill said. “And she’ll have to get me authorized a secure link. There’s something she needs to know.” He turned to the three in the room and frowned. “Not one word of this conversation leaves this trailer, understood?”
“Understood,” Crichton said, looking at the other two. The two civilians looked shocked but they nodded their heads.
“You’re serious?” the NSA asked.
Bill hadn’t had any problems getting into the secure communications trailer. A light colonel had turned up, apparently briefed on the earlier SNAFU and abjectly apologetic. Passes had been tendered, a Humvee carried him over and he’d been ushered into the inner sanctum ahead of a line of officers including a very pissed-off-looking major general.
“Yes, ma’am,” Weaver said. “I would strongly suggest nuking the site and setting up something like a nuclear land mine at all the others.”
The NSA licked her lips and nodded. “Everyone is here right now. I think I can get them all free. Stay there and I’ll try to get them all into the Situation Room.”
Weaver waited patiently until the view changed from the NSA’s empty chair to the Situation Room. It was the same people he’d dealt with on Saturday. The President, the secretary of defense, the NSA and the Homeland Security director. They all looked worn; the director was actually looking haggard.
“Authorizations all straightened out, Doctor?” the SECDEF asked.
“Yes, sir, thank you.”
“Okay, Weaver,” the President said. “Explain why you think I should nuke one of my own cities.”
“Mr. President, what I learned from Mreee makes me think that it’s the best possible option and we can’t wait too long,” Bill said. “The Titcher have a standard method of invasion. They take a bridgehead, establish a terraforming colony and then start replicating themselves from biological material on the far side. The terraforming process involves some sort of biological that eats and destroys all local life, spreading out from the bridgehead. As they get more material, you can think of it as fertilizer, they start building more and more Titcher and larger and larger combat organisms. The Mreee hold them off with those ray guns, which from the sounds of their effect are pretty powerful. We don’t have any, yet, that I know of. Our tanks can just barely damage their worm tanks and from what the Mreee said, the worm tanks are the little weapons. If we don’t stop them, soon, we’ll be looking at Escape from Florida. And, sir, we’ve detected over thirty points that probably can be accessed by the Titcher and more are forming all the time. It might be necessary to nuke them not once, but repeatedly and in multiple different spots.”
The President closed his eyes and leaned forward in his chair, holding his head in his hands.
“I’ll take input from you one at a time,” he said, sitting up and straightening his shoulders. “Homeland Security?”
“I’d like to kick it to the secretary, Mr. President,” the Homeland Security director said. “We can evacuate the area. Most people have left of their own accord. Ten hours, maybe, to ensure evacuation. A clean weapon will minimize fallout. We can survive it. If Dr. Weaver is right, and we’ve gotten the same reports from the Defense and State personnel that have been meeting with the Mreee, then… I don’t see any choice. If they break out in a more populated area… that will be harder. Eustis… is a small town. Break out in Atlanta or Cleveland or Los Angeles and… I’m not sure that bears thinking on.”